Another key labor official is let go in TN

Ron Jones third to leave job since department audit

Jun. 19, 2013

Fiscal Services Administrator Ron Jones

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The Tennessean

Department of Labor and Workforce Development Commissioner Burns Phillips

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The head of the state Labor Department has terminated a high-ranking administrator, the latest change within a department that has seen numerous senior-level staff changes in the wake of a critical financial audit.

Jones had been in charge of the departmentís operating budget of more than $250 million while overseeing facilities, procurement and telecommunications, according to a biography on the state government website.

Former commissioner Karla Davis chose Jones for the role in July 2011.

Davis and two other top officials she hired resigned in mid-March, just days before publication of auditorsí sharp criticisms of the department, which failed to monitor fraud and delayed sending checks to thousands of out-of-work Tennesseans.

Hiring in the Davis administration has led to two lawsuits charging that leaders discriminated against white employees by forcing them out and hiring black replacements. Davis and three hand-picked officials who have since resigned are black, including Jones, former deputy commissioner Alisa Malone and former administrator Turner Nashe.

Each was named in a discrimination lawsuit by former administrator Donald Ingram, who sought department records and internal emails about them as part of the case. Last month, a federal judge ruled that Ingramís suit can move forward. A second lawsuit, filed by Annie Hendricks, a former human resources official, is scheduled for a hearing Friday in Davidson County Chancery Court.